North Carolina walk-on Luke Maye, wearing a familiar uniform number, had just buried the last-second shot to oust heartbroken Kentucky in the NCAA tournament the previous night, a feat Laettner famously had pulled off a quarter-century earlier. And the former Duke star immediately showed that his love of playing the foil, the villain and — let's face it — one of the most widely despised opponents in sports history, endures all of these years later.

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"Luke my son...May the force of the #32 be with you. #uncdownsthecats #theshotlives," Laettner tweeted in nods to Maye and the "Star Wars" franchise.

Laettner's Darth Vader-esque exploits under Mike Krzyzewski at Duke — featuring four straight trips to the Final Four, and back-to-back NCAA titles in 1991 and '92 — are so villainously legendary that one of the finest and most fun of ESPN's excellent "30 for 30" documentary series focused on him and aptly was entitled "I Hate Christian Laettner."

The only difference was, although never a Blue Devils fan, I happened to love everything about Christian Laettner's college game and appreciated his persona and his willingness to embrace all of the outside hatred, especially at this time of year.

Polarizing characters such as Laettner always have provided great drama in sports, invoking intense passion and oftentimes irrational venom from fans and media observers that usually only leaves me laughing and wanting more.

It is why, contrary to mounting opinion, I actually enjoy LaVar Ball and his antics surrounding his sons, most notably departing freshman guard Lonzo Ball of UCLA.

I get why people are turned off by the elder Ball's constant boasting and blatant attention grabs. And at some point it just becomes noise, but his braggadocio usually is so outlandish that the absurdity of his comments — and everyone's hot-take reactions to them, more than anything — continue to entertain me.

Conversely, a large part of the reason Laettner was so despised outside of Durham, was his Mr. Perfect persona – which only was enhanced by a flawless performance that Saturday night at the Spectrum in Philadelphia in the East Regional finals against Kentucky in one of the most unforgettable games in NCAA tournament history.

Don't forget that midway through the second half, Laettner had stomped on the chest of fallen Kentucky player Aminu Timberlake beneath the basket. He received a technical foul but was not ejected, to the strong objections from the Kentucky bench and the school's faithful.

But also don't forget that Laettner, still the all-time leading scorer in tournament history, sank all 10 of his field-goal attempts and all 10 of his free throws in the game.

Ending, of course, with the 17-foot turnaround winner off a three-quarter court inbounds pass Grant Hill had heaved with 2.1 seconds remaining for an elative 104-103 overtime victory and another trip to the Final Four.

"I don't remember hearing much. The crowd was going nuts," Laettner told his hometown Buffalo News, where his father George worked for years as a printer, last week. "If you have a movie or a song, that gives you chills up the back of your neck or down your arm or goose bumps, and you get that warm feeling for 10 seconds, it's almost like you're so happy that you want to have tears of joy.

"That moment on the court, it was that times 100. And when it's brought up now, it's still that times five. It's an explosion of adrenaline, joy and happiness. I still get chills."